Finished

Finished, accomplished, triumphed, success!  Oh, what a great feeling it is.

We moved in last week.  And this house is every bit as wonderful as I have envisioned it all these years.  It is comfortable.  We lit a fire in the wood stove the last 2 nights... more for atmosphere than for warmth.  There was a tiny chill in the house, but nothing a sweater wouldn't have warded off.  And with outside temps below 30 degrees, who's complaining?

We wake every morning to a spectacular view.  Happy as can be.  And quiet!  This house is so quiet you can barely hear anything.  Outside the last couple of days it has been so windy.  Red flag warnings every day.  But inside, you really don't hear much.  I heard the wind whistling on the chimney last night.  And sometimes you can hear the wind on the vents in the bathrooms.  Other than that, you wouldn't know it's windy except to see the trees bending sideways outside.  So comfortable.

Cooking has been a challenge.  Things heat up slower at this altitude.  And things cool quicker.  So by the time I've taken the chicken out of the oven, then served up the salad, the chicken is cold.  Will have to think smarter about that.  We noticed it at the house in town, then got used to it.  But climbing another 1,000 feet in altitude has made another big difference.

We rented out the house in town now -- twice.  The first time was a young couple with 2 small dogs.  And having 2 kids next door, they thought that the older dog would be less than kind to the precious Akira and Joey.  They backed out.  Now another couple is coming down from Lakewood and has already given me a deposit... sight unseen.  Hope it works out.

But for now, we are just enjoying all of our hard work and accomplishments.  What a feat!  But so worth it.

You hear how building a home can strain a marriage.  It didn't ours.  We are stronger than ever.  And happy.

Inspections

The front door with my dragonfly tiles

The walls are painted.  The lights are installed.  The water is on and the appliances are all in.  The floors are done, (with the exception of needing 2 coats of wax on the laundry room, powder room and mud room floors.)

We had a minor mishap with the door hardware for the interior doors.  I ordered my hardware from www.SignatureHardware.com.  Love that site!  The interior levers were touted to be so wide, but they only proved to be not so wide and wouldn't cover the bore holes in the knotty pine doors.  I ordered more yesterday.  We'll see when they get here.

The great room.

We had the propane company hook up the gas on Friday.  Found out that the orifices for the gas dryer were not included with it.  (Even though I reminded them that I needed the LP conversion kit.)  So those are now on order.

We put together a shelving unit for the linen closet.  Then found out the assembled unit wouldn't fit in the door.  Woops.

The dining table - not yet assembled.

The sofa, Les's recliner, a coat rack and 2 night stands were delivered today.  The sofa is stunning.  The recliner had a little cut in the arm, so it went back on the truck.  The night stands are wider than I thought they would be, so we have to put our bed on a different wall.  That's a bummer.  After living in this house (in my head) for 9 years now, I never envisioned it on the north wall.  It was always on the east wall.  Oh well.

So, all of these little "oopsies" may make one think that I'm whining or complaining.  On the contrary.  This whole build has gone along so well, I'm absolutely ecstatic! These little nit-picky things?  No big deal at all.  Les put the dining table together in the great room, and the sofa is also in the great room.  Now, all there is to do is to bring all of the rest of our stuff in.  We should be in by next weekend!

Les plowing, Lucy riding shotgun

WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking down the hallway

Into the kitchen/great room from the laundry room

Almost Done

WE HAVE WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are sooooo close!

We have water - finally!  We have toilets!  Woo-Hoo!  We have doors!  The house is all painted.  We stained and sealed the final piece of the floor today.  Well, almost anyway.

While Les was in California, I stained the floors in the master bedroom and the living room, but I never sealed them.  So that is on the agenda this week.  Then, after staining and sealing, I discovered that the floors need 2 coats of wax, then periodic waxing after that.  The wax is coming on Tuesday courtesy of my friendly brown truck driver.

Love the watercolor effect in the hall floor

Dean is pretty much done with all of the plumbing.  We had one mishap with that, though.  Lowes has been pretty wonderful to work with during this build.  But we bought a vanity for our powder room, and when Dean went to install it, he discovered that it didn't have an overflow.  Not having an overflow is against the code.  Why would Lowe's or Home Depot sell something that isn't up to code?  Furthermore, the faucet/drain combo I bought will not work with a sink that doesn't have an overflow.  For that matter, ALL of the faucet/drain boxes at both Lowe's and Home Depot require an overflow.  So I'm sold something that is not only legal to install, but impossible to install using off the shelf accessories. 

If Lowe's doesn't take it back, I'll be making a nice planter out of it.  That's all it's good for.

A few days ago we went up to Pueblo to raid the scrap pile from our granite people.  We brought home a gorgeous piece of granite, then Les made a bench for the mud room out of it.  Cool, huh?

It snowed today.  It was only about a couple of inches, but we'll take it.  We've have maybe a cumulative 14" of snow this year.  So not good....

Bench made from free granite

Weirdness

Today has been the weirdest day.

A couple of months ago, we adopted 2 feral cats from the shelter.  We had been having a pack rat problem in the garage, and thought the cats would help.  We've not named them.  We've been able to get close to the cats, but not enough to touch.  Bottom line -- they're not pets.  They have a job to do.

We assumed that sooner or later the dogs would get into a scrape with the cats, but, being feral cats, the dogs would probably go running for cover once they got close enough to figure out they're not pets.

We woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  Dean, our plumber, came up to the house today.  I was working on a closet organizer while Les was doing paint touch up.  I began to wonder where the dogs were, so I walked over to the garage.  I saw Mindy, acting a little strange, but nothing serious.  No Lucy.  I called, I whistled, still no Lucy.  I went back to work, but had this nagging feeling.  I walked back to the garage and Mindy was in there again.

So after finding Mindy in the garage again, I began to wonder.  I called for Lucy, and only heard some puppy whines that I thought was Mindy.  Called again - same thing.  Then I could clearly hear a tail bumping against something in the garage.  Since Mindy has no tail, I knew I found Lucy.

Now, our garage is filled with all of the stuff we couldn't fit from our 5 bedroom house into our 1 bedroom house.  It's been sitting in storage in the garage.  The cats found little nooks and crannies to hide in.  So there is a block that's about 25' x 25' by 7 feet high with furniture, boxes, crates, etc. and it's packed pretty solidly.
I called for Les and Chuck because I knew that Lucy found her way into this block of stuff, and couldn't get out.  Each time I called her, she whined a little bit, but we couldn't figure out where she was.  After about 1/2 hour of digging, Les finally located where the sound was coming from.  Lucy, and one of the cats, had fallen behind my mom's cedar chest and were stuck in a hole.  He dug them out.  The cat took off running around the block of stuff and came right back to the hole, with Lucy in hot pursuit.  I was able to grab her and throw her out of the garage.  Then we stood back and surveyed the damage.

There is a hole in the insulation on our steel building that's about 8 square feet big.  There is a massive pile of rodent poop mixed with kitty kibble.  (So much for giving these critters a job to do.)  It took Les about another hour to put things back together and clean up the mess.

And if that wasn't enough, Dean intended to hook up all of the sinks, showers and toilets today.  The first sink didn't have an overflow.  Thank you Lowe's for selling me something that is not up to code.  The drain for that sink doesn't fit it.  The trim for one of the showers is supposed to come with 2 bolts, but you can clearly see a hole in the bag where some kind soul opened the box, poked a hole in the bag and took one of my bolts.  There seemed to be pieces missing from every bathroom.

But the good news?  Lucy is alive and well.  The cats are alive and well.  And I have a working toilet!  Woo-Hoo!!!

Counter tops

The cabinets have been fixed, and the counter tops are in.  And, I must say, they look spectacular.  I knew the granite was pretty, I didn't realize just how gorgeous it was, though.  There is so much movement in the colors.  All of the colors in the house are really working well together.

Kitchen Counter Top
 

Yesterday, Les and I stained the floor in the office.  This morning, we neutralized the acid stain, then put the first coat of sealer on that floor.  Then, we stained the floors in the powder room, laundry room and mud room.  Tomorrow morning we will neutralize the stain, then seal those floors.  All we will have left at that point is the guest bathroom, the hallway and the guest bedroom.  The floors look so good!

Kitchen.  Notice how thick the walls are.

Chuck finished tiling in the guest bathroom.  The master bath shower is done, with the exception of some decorative tiles outlining the shower.  Tomorrow he will probably start on the counter top.  That shouldn't take much.  We brought the extra marble tiles from a tile job at the house in California.  It's just enough to cover that master bathroom vanity. 

After that, the dog shower needs tile, and the counter top in the laundry room.  We still have ceiling trim and baseboards to put up.  Then we can move in!  At some time between then and now, our plumber will come to seat the toilets and get the faucets in.  Can't wait for a working bathroom!

Office Floor

One of the sunflowers I pressed into the wet cement.

Updates

He thought he was tricking me on this one.

Yes, the cabinets are in, but after closer inspection they came to be a little bit of a disappointment.  I called Ab, who said that he'd send Levi out to fix the few "sloppy" things the next time someone from the Amish community needs to catch a train.  (The train depot is here in Trinidad.)  But then yesterday I went into my new kitchen and pulled out the spice drawer, and it wouldn't open.  He didn't account for the glides when he mounted the door.

After having a really rough day up to that time, I called Ab nearly in tears.  I told him I don't care what it takes, he needs to fix it before the counter tops get there.  He promised to be here by the end of this week.  The counter tops will be installed on Monday.

Les touching up the paint after the grout

I'm certain that it will all work out really well.  Ab is a good man.  I think he just let his 17 year old son, Levi, do most of the work on these cabinets.  And, Amish or not, a 17 year old is a 17 year old!  They haven't quite grown a brain yet.

I had to have a piece of Schultz in our home.

This one is in the bedroom.

So, moving right along, I grouted 2 of our window seats yesterday.  I've dropped calling them window sills, because I'm sure they'll be used as seats quite a lot.  They turned out exactly as I had imagined.  It's funny, when I tell Chuck and Les what my vision is, they look at me a little weird... until they see it for themselves.

I'm quite happy with these.  Thanks to DJ who brought a lot of these granite scraps down from Pueblo.  Thanks to Chuck who placed them.  Thanks to Les who usually just lets me do what I want to do.  Happy, happy, happy.

Cabinets

Mindy admiring the new cabinets.

The kitchen cabinets are in.  And they are almost exactly what I had dreamed they'd be.  Ab and Levi are craftsmen.  And the cabinets are gorgeous!

When I hired them for the kitchen, I asked them to make cabinets for the laundry room, and also for our master bathroom.  All of that is done.  Furthermore, in our discussions, I asked Ab if he knew of anyone who could make a headboard for us.  He said, "Sure, we can do that."  I asked him to make an aspen headboard with lots of character.  That's exactly what I got.  And for a really good price, too.

Kitchen cabinets

The house is coming along.  Les painted the master bedroom on Monday.  Then he's been under the weather ever since.  Just a cold, I think.  Hoping I don't get it, too.

The plumber is scheduled to work on the house tomorrow.  We need to bring in the kitchen appliances, sink, faucet, etc.  Hopefully by the end of this week, we'll have a real, live working bathroom!  Woo-hoo!!!!!

Our new headboard

Laundry Room Cabinets

Still loving my water color floor.

Floors

With Chuck and Kent's help, real progress has been made on the house.  Last night I stained the floor in the pantry and great room.  It turned out beautifully.  It's like a watercolor... exactly what I wanted.

Living room

And the electrician has been busy at work.  We finally have lights, power plugs that actually work, and ceiling fans.  Tomorrow morning, I will go to seal the floor in the kitchen/great room.  Friday I will be going up to Colorado Springs to pick Les up at the airport, (Yay!) then we'll put another coat of sealer on Friday evening.  

Bedroom

Saturday, the cabinets come!  Sometime next week, the plumber will come to give us a real, working bathroom.  Now don't get me wrong, the outhouse has been a delight.  It's probably got the best view of any outhouse this side of the Mississippi.  But it's still an outhouse.  Actual running water will be such a blessing.

Office

After that, we still need to finish 2 window sills.  Put the interior doors in, and we WILL be moving in by the end of February.  Just in time, too.  I don't think my aching back can take much more.  Wah!

Acid stain floor in the master bath

Master Bath

Looks like watercolor

Living room

January 15

Our shower before tile.

Les has gone to California for a few weeks to work.  We ran out of money.  NOTHING IS HAPPENING ON THE HOUSE.  It's making me crazy.

January is my busiest month.  So I can't be up there working on the house.  I have to earn money when I can - doing what I do.  Chuck has been in Las Vegas partying his big heart out this week.  So it's me and the girls.  I take them up in the morning.  And I walk around our soon-to-be home just thinking of how darn close we are.

This is what still needs to be done: Painting (about 60% of the house has been primed); the floors need to be cleaned, then stained and sealed; once that's done the cabinets need to be installed; the template for the counter top needs to be done; counter top cut and installed; showers tiled; plumbing fixtures installed; lighting fixtures installed; interior doors installed; baseboard and trim installed; move-in.

Our bedroom.

I have the cash put aside for the plumber, electrician, counter and the cabinets.  I already have all of our lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, doors, appliances, tile, etc.  I still have a little cash left for some of the other work, but Chase Freedom, here I come!  Thank God for good credit.  See, at this point, we can probably finish ourselves.  But with Les out of town, and me working and not in the best of shape since I tweaked my back, it will take months to finish.  In the meantime, we're paying 2 mortgages, 2 electric bills, 2 Internet bills, 2 tax bills, etc.  And once we move out of our duplex, that's rental income coming our way.

Long story short, it's making me crazy (and poor) to be waiting so long to move in.

The niche in our bedroom. (Not painted yet.)

Les starting a fire in the wood stove.

A New Year

Time just scurries on past you, doesn't it?  You're left standing there wondering what happened.

Les and I are taking the day off of work today.  Well... at least I am.  I watched 2 episodes of "Supernatural" this afternoon while Les played on his computer.  Now I'm blogging away while he sweeps the floor.  I feel guilty not helping him... that's just how I'm wired.  But not guilty enough to stop typing and go clean something.  I need a day off, damn it!  So does he, but he sees something that needs to be done, he needs to go do it.  He's a better person than I.

Maybe when he's done sweeping I will start a new book my good friend Ann gave me for Christmas.

In the meantime, the house is coming along.  We are pretty much out of money.  Chuck has made himself scarce this week as there's really not a lot for him to do right now.  The stucco guy and I have a love/hate relationship going on.  Sometimes he seems so insightful, but more often than not he's just a pain in our butts and we wish he'd hurry up and finish.

We decided to go with only 2 coats of stucco on the inside, that will save us a few thousand dollars.  Right now, our construction loan is drained, and Chase Freedom credit card will help us out with the rest of our home.  The last thing I wanted to do was to owe yet more money, but at this point we're exhausted and we need help.  I feel literally exhausted.  And we haven't even started painting yet.



"Hauling" Water.

Once the stucco crew is out of there, I will place my granite on the window ledges.  There is a lot of space to cover, but I've been spending time planning my attack on the mosaic.  When the walls dry to the point of a lower humidity, then we can start priming and painting.  We need to stain and seal the floors.  The Chuck needs to hang all of the rest of the doors.  All of the interior doors need to be hung, and the storm doors on the outside.  We need to install the plumbing fixtures and the lighting fixtures.

Filling the cisterns
 

Ab needs to install the cabinets, our granite needs to be installed.  We're going with a cheap laminate in the laundry room.  We have some marble that we brought with us from California -- I'm thinking that will look good as our master bath counter top.  Trying to do this as cheaply as possible, but the money and the energy has now dried up.  Not sure what we're going to do but keep on keeping on.

Les is leaving for California in a couple of weeks.  And January is my busiest month.  I don't see much happening with the house until he gets home.  Maybe I can throw some primer on the walls while he's gone.